MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) provides a mechanism to send for example drawings, photographs, music or voice clips and even short video to and from client terminals connected to telecommunication systems. The system is similar to SMS (Short Message Service), which provides possibility to exchange text messages, but MMS can be applied also to other types of content. MMS system operates on the “store and forward” principle with messages being stored and possibly formatted at an MMSC (Multimedia Messaging Service Centre) when sent between users.
An MMS Relay/Server (or MMSC) is a network element or application, which is controlled by the MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) provider. This element transfers messages, provides specific operations to the mobile environment and provides storage services. In a client terminal, such as mobile phone, MMS messages are handled by an MMS Client module. The MMS Client provides the content of the MMS messages to the presentation layer so that the user can view the content.
The use of MMS for transporting data to/from applications running on top of the MMS Client is under discussion in 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and Java Community (JSR 205 ExpertGroup) at the time of writing this specification. The proposed system is defined in “Wireless Messaging API (WMA) for Java™ 2 Micro Edition”, Version 2.0, Proposed Final Draft, Draft 0.10a, Oct. 23, 2003, JSR 205 Expert Group.
In the proposed system, MMS messages are used as carriers for application data, and the MMS Client is controlled to pass message contents comprising application data to the respective application without processing the content itself and vice versa. Below, the term “upper level” application is used for referring to such application, which runs on top of an operating system, as a separate application from the MMS Client but which uses MMS messages as a carrier for communicating application data. Additional header fields, such as an application ID header field, in MMS message PDU (Protocol Data Unit) are used for identifying the source and target application of the contents of an MMS message. By means of these new header fields the MMS Client is able to identify message content that is destined to an “upper level” application and to forward the content to the right “upper level” application.
The proposed system is expected to be approved for the 3GPP TS 23.140 standard.